Record online radio stream in VC++

Question

I want to develop a software which can record online radio streams in VC++ using MFC. Any pointers to get me started.

Answer 1

I suspect this is non-trivial, primarily due to lack of documentation and/or codecs.

"Online radio streams" covers a multitude of sins. There are many different codecs in use and many different arrangements for transfering audio data from the server to the client.

There are two basic problems. The first is getting hold of the data coming into your PC. One solution is to capture data from the network stack, by writing a filter driver or - much more easily - using an existing third party product, like WinPCAP. The second problem is then figuring out what in this data is your audio data. This data will be compressed, so you will need to know the codec in use, so that once you have the data, you can play it back. (The codec might, for example, be embedded in a flash or java applet and so not be available to you). The data may also be encrypted. If that is the case, you will also need to subvert the client-side software involved in the data transfer stream, which is a whole new ballgame.

Basically, you could spend two years on this, easy.

Answer 2

You could maybe look into a project that already seems to have implemented what you are asking for.

Answer 3

Well, I have recommended the BASS library here before, and I must do it again. It is simply awesome, and has built in support for internet streams and recording. No need to do tedious networking stuff, just look at the sample Netradio in the download.